#350 Welcome Home Series# 3, Acceptance

#350 Welcome Home Series# 3, Acceptance
By Guest Speaker: Zach Sloane

RECAP

Welcome Home. LOVE.

A need to talk about Family, about Welcome Home, and about who we are as a church at Impact Church, our culture.

Jesus had a favourite house. Luke 10:38 and John 11:3 “he who you love.”
The house was characterized by love.
Sometimes we can let offences get in the way of love.

With a stumbling stone you can step over it, trip over it, or carry it with you.

WEEK #3 WELCOME HOME – ACCEPTANCE

Flowing out of love and Jesus favourite house – ACCEPTANCE.

“There is no power from God that is separated from love…This is more than a feeling or an emotion. It is an attitude of acceptance toward everyone and everything that is God’s, even if you can’t control it, manage it, or even nurture it. You are called to love.” ― Shawn Bolz, Translating God: Hearing God’s Voice for Yourself and the World Around You

Love and acceptance are linked together.

1 John 3:18 New King James Version (NKJV)
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth.

Love does not have to just look one way – it can be acted out in many ways — and acceptance is one way to practice real love.

Brené Brown says there is a difference between professing love and practicing love. Asked if is possible to love someone yet cheat on them and treat them poorly? Response was insightful: “I don’t know if you can love someone and betray them and be cruel to them, but I do know that when you betray someone or behave in an unkind way toward them, you are not practicing love. And, for me, I don’t just want someone who says they love me: I want someone who practices that love for me every day.” (p.28 The Gift of Imperfection).

Same is true for acceptance… when not accepting people, we are not loving.

Back to Jesus favourite house: “a certain woman named Martha welcomed Jesus into her house.” Luke 10:38

GREEK – welcome is the word ὑποδέχομαι / hupodechomai /(hoop-od-ekh’-om-ahee)

Definition: I receiveas a guest, entertain hospitably, welcome.

Acceptance: the action or process of being receivedas adequate or suitable, typically to be admitted into a group.

Jesus favourite house – he was accepted. Of course, he was… who wouldn’t accept Jesus? Well, Simon the Pharisee!

Luke 7:36-50.(NKJV)

36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesussat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Himweeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped themwith the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed themwith the fragrant oil. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this,he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this iswho is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”40 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”So he said, “Teacher, say it.” 41 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”43 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the onewhom he forgave more.”And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” 44 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped themwith the hair of her head. 45 You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. 46 You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. 47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which aremany, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the sameloves little.”48 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”49 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”50 Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

(1.) Accepting Jesus.

“a certain woman named Martha welcomed Jesus into her house.” Luke 10:38

We accept Jesus, just like he was accepted at his favourite house. That’s part of who we are. He is the head of the Church and His presence is what makes us unique and not just a social gathering.

Jesus contrasts woman’s and the Pharisee’s behaviour. Jesus was present, but not welcomed as a typical guest. What she did was the opposite and indicated that she accepted and welcomed him.

The Pharisee did not give Jesus a typical welcome that a quest would receive in that culture.
(1) You would provide water at the very least. Simon didn’t but she did with her tears.
(2) You would provide oil. Simon didn’t but she brought perfume.
(3) You would welcome someone with a kiss. This guy did not welcome Jesus but she did. (even Judas did that!)

In effect, she was welcoming and accepting Jesus and Simon did not. Her acceptance of Jesus was then directly related to the one who loves much verses the ones who loves little. Love and acceptance do go together.

Funny thing … her acceptance was procedurally and culturally inappropriate – but she accepted Jesus and was forgiven and saved – she had the Person. She FOLLOWED. The Pharisee had Jesus in his house but that’s not the same as acceptance.

John 13:20 (NIV)
Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

Got to accept Jesus … however he comes, in whomever he comes, even though sometimes we may not like it, recognize it, or appreciate it.

1 John 5:12-13(NIV)
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

What you need is the Son. If you have him you have life… even if how you express your faith, or how you came to your faith in Jesus is not how I ‘need’ you to have done it.

(2.) Jesus accepts us.

Can you hear the tone in the Pharisee’s voice “Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this,he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this iswho is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”Luke 7:39

Pharisee is expecting distance… like the only thing a truly holy person would do here is to reject her and create distance.

He didn’t reject her… he didn’t send her away. He didn’t even correct her for her cultural and procedural mis-steps. He recognized acceptance and love and used her as an example.

Religion says stay away, segregate, isolate, and use social inclusion as a manipulating tool for change. Jesus says COME and be changed.

Mathew 11:28
Matthew 11:28-30 New International Version (NIV)
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

John 7:37 “if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink.”

“Come to Me” Jesus says COME, he INVITES, that sounds like acceptance and “Welcome” – come just as you are – distance removed. You are welcome!

This Old Covenant way of seeing people is actually at odds with who God really is as we see in the Person of Jesus. For a long, long time, the religious teachers of the law, scribes, Pharisees, they were creating distance in their depiction of God.. but along comes Jesus and with an emphatic, world changing, paradigm shattering, history dividing cry, He says “Everyone who is thirsty let him COME, If anyone is tired and burnt out, COME to Me all you who are weary .

One of the verbs we value is INVITE. We invite, and we mean it. We don’t invite with hidden judgement and disdain or mixed motives in our hearts.

We are ok when people come and they don’t look like us, sound like us, and are not cleaned up before they get here.

To be clear…God has a program for people… conformity to the image of Jesus. But it starts with the invitation to come because you are accepted… totally, just as you are.

What about transformation? Jesus transforms! Can’t keep people from the very source of transformation… in the name of transformation. That’s like a doctor saying “I’ve got this great cure for your ailment… I’ll give it to you once you get better.”

2 Corinthians 3:Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a]the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Freedom and transformation are inseparable.

Maslow – 1943 paper “Theory of Human Motivation” – people are not motivated for morality, self-actualization, personal development, or a better life or next life even… if they don’t first have basic safety and security, physical needs met, and then feel genuine acceptance and belonging.

Old paradigm – Believe, Behave, Belong

Now – Belong / Believe / Behave – whatever the case – BELONG IS FIRST.

When we practice acceptance we are modelling, prophetically demonstrating the truth of the gospel – who actually is a person and not a set of propositional truths. Can know true “info” but if divorced from relationship with truth Himself, worthless.

1 Timothy 3:15 New International Version (NIV)
“…you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

We together embody and live out truth just as much as we proclaim it. So…
Therefore…
(3.) Accepting One Another

Romans 15:7 “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you.”

If this great acceptance has been extended towards us, we ought to extend it to others.

You demonstrate that you believe the gospel and the power of God by radically accepting people on the basis of what Christ has done for them, because you see them as if that has been applied to them already, and you call them into it.

Shawn Bolz quote.
“There is no power from God that is separated from love…This is more than a feeling or an emotion. It is an attitude of acceptance toward everyone and everything that is God’s, even if you can’t control it, manage it, or even nurture it. You are called to love.” ― Shawn Bolz, Translating God: Hearing God’s Voice for Yourself and the World Around You.

Acceptance
1.) It’s personal – not just proximity and tolerance
2.) It’s intentional – it gets involved, it seeks out, it knows who and what is accepted. If not pursued and engaged, you’re not accepting you are co-existing. Big difference.
3.) It’s tied to love – acceptance is an act of love.
4.) It’s a two-way street. If you want to be accepted, you have to have the courage to be known for who you are.
5.) It’s not conditional – it is as Christ accepts us. Without qualification, reservation, without finding fault.

2 Corinthians 5:19(NIV)
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Accept that He accepts you and accept others as he accepts you.

350 Welcome Home Series #3, Acceptance, PowerPoint Slides